1. Field
The present invention relates generally to a catalytic device for reducing the pollution content of an exhaust gas.
2. Description of Related Art
Exhaust systems perform several functions for a modern engine. For example, the exhaust system is expected to manage heat, reduce pollutants, control noise, and sometimes filter particulate matter. Generally, these individual functions are performed by separate and distinct components. Take, for example, the exhaust system of a typical gasoline engine. The engine exhaust system may use a set of heat exchangers or external baffles to capture and dissipate heat. A separate muffler may be coupled to the exhaust outlet to control noise, while a catalytic converter assembly may be placed in the exhaust path to reduce non-particulate pollutants. Although today particulates are not generally the pollutants focused upon in the gasoline engine, it is likely that more restrictive regulations may soon apply.
An exhaust system for a modern gasoline engine is nearly universally required to remove or eliminate some of the non-particulate pollutants from the exhaust gas stream, and therefore might employ a known emissions control device, such as three-way catalytic converter. Such a three-way converter uses chemical oxidation and reduction processes to remove non-particulate pollutants from the exhaust gas stream. The known catalytic (or metal) converter holds a catalytic material that, when sufficiently heated, reacts with exhaust gassed to lower the chemical potential to react non-particulate pollutants into non-pollutants. More particularly, the known converter uses a flow-through design where exhaust gasses enter one end of the converter, flow through open parallel channels, come into contact with a catalyst for converting some of the pollutants in the exhaust gas stream into non-pollutants before ultimately flowing out into the atmosphere. As the exhaust gas flows through the channels, laminar flows are created which cause the exhaust gases to flow down the channel and, due to concentration gradient and mass-transfer effects, come into contact with the catalyst residing on the channel walls. The channel walls have the catalytic material disposed on their surfaces, and as the hot exhaust gas contacts the channel walls, the walls are heated to elevate the catalytic material to the a threshold temperature above which the catalyzed reactions readily occur. This is colloquially known as the ‘light-off’ temperature. Likewise, the time it takes for the light-off temperature to be reached is known as the ‘light-off’ period. Then, as the exhaust gas continues to flow, the catalytic material interacts with the pollutants in the exhaust gas to facilitate the conversion thereof into non-polluting emissions. About 50% of the pollution generated from and emitted by modern engines equipped with catalytic converters occurs during this light-off period when the converter is essentially non-operational. In certain vehicle applications, such as stop and go traffic and short trips in cities, the overall usefulness of the catalytic converter to reduce pollution is mitigated since the converter spends a significant amount of time at temperature below catalyst light-off or relating to low conversion efficiencies.
The action of moving the exhaust gas through open channels and transporting the pollutants to the channel walls occurs via a gaseous diffusion mechanism. Once the catalyst has reached its activation temperature, the reaction rate is dependant on the rate of mass transfer from the bulk of the gas stream (center of the laminar gas flow) to the walls. As the catalyzed pollutant-eliminating reactions occur at the wall-gas interface (where the catalyst is typically located), a concentration gradient of pollutants is generated in the exhaust gas stream. A boundary layer develops and, being the slowest process under such conditions, mass-transfer principles dictate the overall rate of the reaction. Since bulk diffusion is a relatively slow process, the number of open channels is typically increased to compensate, and increase the overall reaction rate. The effect is essentially to reduce the distance that the gas molecules have to travel to diffuse from the bulk into the boundary layer. Additionally, the relatively limiting bulk diffusion step may be compensated for by making the converter in a honeycomb design or by otherwise increasing the effective catalytic surface area. By simultaneously reducing the size of the open channels and increasing the number of channels, the bulk diffusion rate may effectively be increased and the efficiency of the converter improved. However, making such a “closed-cell” honeycomb design results in a decrease in the thickness, and thus the strength, of the cell walls and an increase in the backpressure to the engine. Thus, the converter is made more fragile while the fuel economy of the vehicle is simultaneously decreased. Accordingly, there are practical limits on the minimum size of the open channels that restrict the ability to significantly improve the bulk transfer rate of traditional monolithic honeycomb converters past a certain point.
Thus, due to the inefficiency of the bulk transfer process the converter is typically made quite large and is therefore heavy, bulky and relatively slow to heat to the threshold catalytic operating temperature. Typically, several catalytic converters may be arranged in a sequential order to improve overall emission control.
Known three-way gasoline catalytic converters do not filter particulate matter. Recent studies have shown that particulates from a gasoline ICE (internal combustion engine) may be both dangerous to health and generated at quantities roughly equal to post-DPF (diesel particulate filter) PM (particulate matter) emission levels. As PM emissions standards are tightened, both diesel and gasoline engines will have to be further modified to reduce PM emissions. Some European agencies are already considering the regulation of gasoline PM emissions.
Most, if not all, catalytic systems do not efficiently or effectively operate until a threshold operational temperature is reached. During this “light-off” period, substantial amounts of particulate and non-particulate pollution are emitted into the atmosphere. Accordingly, it is often desirable to place a catalytic device as close as possible to the engine manifold, where exhaust gasses are hottest and thus light-off time is shortest. In this way, the catalyst may more quickly extract sufficient heat from the engine exhaust gasses to reach its operational temperature. However, materials, design and/or safety constraints may limit placement of the catalytic converter to a position spaced away from the manifold. When the catalytic converters are spaced away from the manifold, light off time is increased, and additional pollutants are thus exhausted into the atmosphere.
The most popular design for catalytic converters is currently the monolithic honeycomb wherein the monolithic material is cordierite and silicon carbide. In order to be increasingly effective, the cell density of the cordierite monolithic honeycomb design has been increased by making the individual channel walls thinner and increasing the number of channels per unit area. However, the strength of the walls (and, thus, the monolithic converter) decreases with decreasing wall thickness while the backpressure increases (and engine efficiency and mileage correspondingly decreases) with increasing cell density; thus, a practical limit for increasing converter efficiency exists and is defined by a minimal monolith strength and a maximum allowable backpressure provided by the unit. Another approach to addressing increasingly stringent emission standards is to utilize known three-way gasoline catalytic converters arranged in multiple stages to obtain reasonable emission control of multiple pollutants. However, this approach also adds to cost, weight, fuel penalty and engineering complexity. Thus, in an increasingly stringent emissions regulatory environment, there is a need to find an effective way to reduce harmful emissions from a typical ICE.
Thus, air pollution standards, particularly in regard to vehicle exhaust gasses, are coming under increased pressure from governments and environmental organizations. The consequence of continued emissions is well recognized, and additional regulations are being added while existing regulations are being more aggressively enforced. However, reduced emissions and more stringent emission regulations may have a short-term negative impact on the overall economy, as additional monies must be spent to meet higher standards. Indeed, governments have been relatively slow to adapt tighter regulations, citing competitive and economic consequences. Accordingly, a more cost effective and effective catalytic device may ease the transition to a cleaner world, without substantial detrimental economic effects. In particular, it would be desirable to provide a cost effective catalytic device for removing both particulate pollutant matter and non-particulate pollutants from an exhaust stream that is capable of easy installation on vehicles, small engines, and in industrial exhaust stacks. It would also be desirable for such a device to be able to catalyze chemically important reactions that may not be considered as pollution control, such as chemical synthesis, bioreactor reactions, gas synthesis etc. The present invention addresses this need.